Sun Pharma pops buyout pill again

Mumbai, July 16: After a blockbuster deal to acquire Ranbaxy Laboratories, Sun Pharma today announced that it was buying US-based Pharmalucence Inc for an undisclosed amount.

Pharmalucence, which has sterile injectable capacity in the US, has been acquired by one of the subsidiaries of Sun Pharma, the Mumbai-based company said in a statement today.

New England-based Pharmalucence, which employs at least 100 professionals, provides contract manufacturing services of human injectables in either liquid or powder form. It has a 70,000-square-feet facility that caters to varied customer needs.

Analysts expect the transaction to enable Sun Pharma to enhance its presence in the US injectables market. The stock markets welcomed the acquisition with the Sun Pharma scrip rising to a new 52-week high of Rs 753 in intra-day trade before closing at Rs 743.65 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Earlier this year, Sun Pharma had acquired Ranbaxy Laboratories in an all-stock transaction with a total equity value of $3.2 billion along with a debt of $800 million, taking the overall deal value to $4 billion.

Pharmalucence was set up in 2007 after a management buyout of CIS-US, a company incorporated to commercialise medical applications from technologies developed by its European parent company.

The objective of the buy-out was to transform Pharmalucence to not only become an advanced contract manufacturing organisation, but also a leading manufacturer of radiopharmaceuticals.

Radiopharmaceuticals are drugs used to treat cancer.

Pharmalucence received approval for its first new product in 2008.

In 2011 and 2012, it received FDA nod for two new indications for its sulphur colloid product used to assist localisation of lymph nodes in patients with breast cancer.

Later, in 2012, the company began its move to set up a manufacturing facility.

It expects to receive final inspection and regulatory approval of the new facility in this calendar year.

During the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2014, Sun Pharma’s US sales stood at $403 million, a growth of 22 per cent over the corresponding period last year.

The US accounts for almost 61 per cent of the total sales of the company founded by Dilip Shanghvi. For the year as a whole, sales in the US stood at $1.62 billion, a growth of 43 per cent.